To save the City of Baltimore seems like an awfully large task for the people and neighborhoods that make up the Station North Arts and Entertainment District.
For years, the conversation has been had about Station North's part in the revitalization of the city. A large factor of this revitalization involves bringing in new members and investments into the community.
In 2003, a Cork Factory resident and community activist, Dennis Livingston, remarked on how officials could go about changing the Station North community saying that really there are two options: "
one way is to get rid of the poverty. The other is to get rid of the people."
Ten years later, this idea still stood. A caller on the
Marc Steiner show remarked that "as Station North Grows, so will square footage prices." With the increase in property prices and values, certain people are pushed in and out of the city.
No matter the year, what seems to echo through all that comment on the revitalization of Station North, and of Baltimore City overall, is the community connections and support needed for neighborhoods like Station North to survive.
It is up to the community whether or not the City projects can survive and become what they are intended to be. Support of the projects and planning and ideas of City officials by residents is needed for these sorts of projects to actually work and succeed. Station North locals need to play into what planners, developers, and executives are trying to create of the area. Station North as a space can continue to grow into a successful and engaging community for both residents and visitors, that could also encourage people to stay and explore the rest of the city.
I don't think that Station North can necessarily save the city of Baltimore-- one neighborhood alone cannot reverse decades of population decreases all while supporting poor residents and ushering in richer ones. But Station North is in a unique place in which there is a strong momentum built up to continue to support the residents within the community while revitalizing the area that is promising.
The history of the people and the space of Station North is one that can be promising in providing a success story in the revitalization of the City of Baltimore, but the support of its residents is what will help save the City.
Questions for Ben Stone:
1. Two years later, what sort of changes have you seen in Station North as an Arts District?
2. In 2013, there was a lot of conversation and critic around the lack of African American developers with the projects, has there been any progress in diversifying the people involved in the projects of developing Station North?
3. A caller to the Marc Steiner show mentioned how as square footage prices grow, certain people would be pushed in and out of the community, how do you react to people crying wolf and saying that gentrification is destroying the community.
